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Macalaster Schmidt
Media Aesthetics- Muse
March 12, 2016
What a Time to be Alive:
An Analysis of Wang Wei

Translation as a function for communicating with people with different languages has
undeniably been a benefit for the world as a whole. However, its reliability to maintain creative
expression has been questioned in the realm of lingual studies. 19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei
by Eliot Weinberger examines the difference in translation across various languages of a poem
written 1300 years ago. This text reveals that language and its ambiguous signifiers contributes
to the loss in translation because the imagery of the original text is unequal to its reproduction.
Additionally, creating a reproduction in a different language increases the authority of the
mediator, the translator, which can spark new meaning behind an existing piece of literature all
while retaining a similar image.
Translation leads to ambiguity due to the way signifiers reflect the signified. The
relationship of the signifier and the signified is arbitrary: Language is a system of
interdependent terms in which the value of each term results solely from the simultaneous
presence of the others (Saussure, 116). Different languages have different values; the world is
essentially carved up into different words, but all languages carve up the world
independently and in their own unique manner. For example, mountain most does not certainly
equal hill, and sound is not the same as to echo. However, there is do distinction between
mountain and hill in Chinese, they are one in the same, despite the obvious different physical
characteristics. Moreover, jing, means bright(ness) or shadow(s) even though they are
opposites in English (Weinberger, 6,7). Saussure asserts that there is no natural correlation

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between the vocal sound and the combination of letters and the signifier itself, except for a few
extreme cases (Saussure, 119). The only reason that language works is because there is a mutual
understanding of the signifier and signified; since words have different values in different
languages, there is not a one-to-one word equivalence across every language. Unequal values
creates ambiguity because when a word has multiple translations, a difference in the signified in
each of the translations exists. This difference creates a gap between what the originals author
intends and what the translator portrays, no matter what word they choose. In 19 Ways, the
character translation from Chinese to English is rough. There is dispute of translation on eleven
out of the twenty characters. A single character may be a noun, verb, and adjective. It may even
have contradictory readings (Weinberger, 7) . Thus, it is imperative to see how these differences
in portrayal relate to the text and imagery.
W.J.T Mitchell claims that images are the things we perceive before we are even
concerned about what the image represents (39). It is the readers ability to paint their own
picture in their head, which is especially prevalent when text is the media. Unless the context
provides explicit information, readers create an image of their own with varying colors, textures,
and shapes. When an author translates the poem from its native Chinese to English, it distorts the
originals imagery because the author has to make a choice on which translation to pick, which
causes a new and different portrait in the mind of the reader because of the unequal values.
Rolling hills are surely different from the tallest peaks, and the author is unclear whether Wei
intended to portray both, one, or mix between these two. Based on the combinations of English
words based on the character-by-character translation, the translator could never say that black
caused a reflection. The problem is that in Chinese, using qing, translated as green, black, or
blue, is logical, or the poem would have never been published nonetheless stood the test of time

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(Weinberger, 6). The unclarity and inability to create an equal reproduction is a loss, and why
Schopenhauer wrote that poems cannot be translated; they can only be transposed.
Transposition generates a a broad set of rules that the different translations abide by, but each
have room to explore in regard to their imagery. All of the English translations of Wang Weis
poem contain a tall landmass, sunlight, auditory noises, a mass of trees, and colorful flowerless
living organisms that rest on the trees. Furthermore, the two major parts of the poem, the
solitude of the forest and the apparition of light and its silently visual sensations are
retained in each (Weinberger, 48). Both of these parts are induced by the text-derived imagery
even though there may be a difference in physical attributes in each of the translations. The
emotion of the poem is preserved, an important piece that each author maintained in their
translations.
Losing some intangible aspects of the poem in the process of reproduction may seem like
the essence of the text is stripped away; but, such leeway allows the translator to take over the
text and create a new rendition from existing material. Translation modifies and builds off of the
classical Chinese poetic style in particular. Paz mentions that this poem carries to an extreme
the characteristics of Chinese poetry: universality, impersonality, absence of time, absence of
subject (Weinberger, 31). In the character-by-character translation, the first two words are
empty and mountain(s) or hill(s). W.J.B Fletcher starts of his poem with so lone seem
the hills (Weinberger 6,8). Fletcher adds personification to the hills to create intimacy and a sad
sense of longing, something that does not appear in the other translations. Adding literary
mechanisms like these further demonstrate that gains can be made by altering the text, and thus
the imagery of the poem. Furthermore, even though the translator has to make a choice on which
translated word to use if there is a difference in signified value, they can still make this choice

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based on preference. The translator mediates the translational process and has authority on what
reaches the reader. Weinberger acknowledges that a poem dies when it has no place to go
(Weinberger, 1). In essence, he sees that the transformations between all of the translations,
carried out by the translator, increases the longevity of the poem because portraying an original
text in a slightly different light is fascinating and refreshing.
The translator plays an integral role in making sure that the original poem is preserved
despite the differences between its reproduction. Translation permits some free realm into
changing the imagery behind an existing test which can be seen as an improvement, despite the
problems with producing equal values in different languages. Nonetheless, authors have take a
poem from the 7th century and formed it into a rejuvenating piece with vivid imagery. Sharing
art with different cultures teaches us the different philosophies and behaviors of people all across
the globe. The technological age has accelerated globalization, a process now necessary for the
survival and proliferation of countries. Translation has been an important factor in this equation,
and never has there been such an accessible way to connect with any person on the planet. There
is sincerity the statement: what a time to be alive.

Works Cited

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Weinberger, Eliot, Octavio Paz, and Wei Wang. Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang Wei: How a
Chinese Poem Is Translated. Mount Kisco, NY: Moyer Bell, 1987. Print.

Saussure, Ferdinand De. "Linguistic Value." Course in General Linguistics. New York:
Philosophical Library, 1959. 110-23. Print.